Open—S. Stewart
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Broken and creature salt man.
The working has spoken, shall surely bring them.
The.
Story never sounded.
You.
Sweet.
Low, painful. I present, swirl, see it's been for long, and then I'll try.
Thank thee, but I wonder, slob and grace in providing for us in every possible way. Thank you how it's given to us all things that pertain unto life and to godliness. We thank you for the love that Thou is bestowed upon us, that we should be called Thy children.
And thank you for that unspeakable gift. I know, dear son. So, Father, this afternoon.
We do commit our time to be as we would open that word once again. We pray that all of God.
Thy spirit.
Word that would be given that might be a blessing.
To each one present.
Including the dear children as well as.
Just ask.
All things being priced would have.
Preeminence, thank you for the villages and hours to contemplate.
The Majesty.
The glories that meet.
Might continue to exalt his name.
Together.
Just thank you.
Liberty ordered us to eat as we do.
So we do.
Kind of making an assumption we probably won't have time to get through everything.
But I'd like to look at a few of the verses.
That were.
Coming up next in our chapter.
And how they are illustrated typically for us in Leviticus chapter 16 in the great Day of Atonement.
So back in our chapter in Colossians.
Chapter One.
I'm skipping over some.
I'd like to take up versus 20.
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Through 22.
And having made peace through the blood of his cross.
By him to reconcile all things unto himself, By him I say, whether they be things in earth.
Or things in heaven.
And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind.
By wicked works yet now hath he reconciled.
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you wholly.
And unblameable and Unruh provable in his sight.
We have in these.
Verses that we've read in this chapter, Three things.
The work of propitiation on the Cross. God Word.
The satisfaction rendered to God.
Through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The reconciliation of all things.
Everything.
If there were, not, if there were, but I think, partly quoting Mr. Darby, if there were about one blade of grass that was not brought back under.
His authority?
And his as being his own.
It would not be to the glory of God. Everything, everything.
Every created thing and heaven and earth is going to be reconciled to Him. And then lastly.
Ourselves as individuals.
The side of the cross we call substitution.
That which is manward.
That which concerns ourselves individually and the wonderful reconciliation of persons, individual persons to go on. Well, let's just go back to.
Leviticus 16.
That was a one of the great feasts that Israel was to keep to the Lord.
Day of Atonement, a day when they would come.
And afflict themselves in connection with their sin.
And offerings made to the Lord, and they would be the basis upon which God could have to do with Israel.
Repeated year by year because the law made nothing perfect.
But the work of Christ on the cross did, and so that's a work that would never be repeated.
Let's look at this great Day of Atonement.
One of the first things, and it's not exactly connected with that first part of what we had in Colossians 1 propitiation, but it was that Aaron was to take.
In verse 12A, sensor full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil, and he shall put the incense upon the fire.
Before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat, that is upon the testimony.
That he die not.
And so he was to take incense and take holes of fire from the altar of burnt offering is where those coals were from.
And as he laid that incense, his hands full of it, on top of those hot coals, smoke would just roll off. Sweet smelling smoke would roll off those hot coals. You know, it says about that incense, it was beaten small, was ground very fine.
And I'm sure that helped in the smoke coming off those coals.
But you know, it speaks to us of all that the Lord Jesus passed through, I think, at the hands of man. He was beaten small. He was made very little of by man.
But the coals on the altar would speak of all that he passed through in the hand of God.
And the sweet fragrance from the combination of those two things that ascended up to God in the perfection of His person, and all that He suffered from man, and then even more as He was laid on the coals of Calvary fire.
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It just brought out the perfection of His person all the more. The finer you beat that incense, the more smoke would come off the coals. The more the Lord suffered, whether it was from the hands of man or laid on the coals of fire, the more was brought into beautiful exhibition of the perfection of His person.
And offering himself to God. And that smoke would roll off and it would go around the priest.
As he held and swung that censor and he would go in the veil where the ark was, and if I was him, I would want to make sure I'd swung that sensor all around me so that smoke was all the way around me. Because as he went into the veil, there was something other than the cloud of incense that was around him.
There was what we call the Shekinah Glory cloud. God dwelt between in the holiest of all.
Between the cherubims on top of the Ark, where the mercy seat was, was where he would speak.
And where he would commune with Israel, and where he dwelt in the cloud of His glory was there.
And Aaron would go in surrounded with a cloud of incense.
And a brother said one time, what does it take to meet a cloud, to meet the cloud of God's glory? It takes that cloud of the perfection of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ laid on the coals of fire to meet the cloud of his glory in that holy place. And so he would go in, and all the fragrance of that incense.
But he brought something else with him.
Previously in the chapter, Ebola had been taken.
And it had been killed and its blood had been poured out.
And.
That Bullock's blood.
Was to be brought within the veil.
And so as Aaron went in, in that cloud of incense, says in verse 14, he shall take the blood of the Bullock and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward, and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger 7 times.
And so he was to take that blood. There was the mercy seat one time.
On the mercy seat, those cherry bombs looking down on the mercy seat where that blood was sprinkled, The eye of God was upon that mercy seat. And just as He had said long ago in Egypt, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. That was for God's eye. But then He was to sprinkle the blood seven times before the mercy seat.
And you know God sees the work of the cross.
Once, if I can put it that way, he's satisfied.
But you know, you and I need a lot more assurance.
And so it's sprinkled in front of the mercy seat 7 * 7 times. And doesn't the gospel go out? And doesn't it preach to the unbeliever?
The full assurance that they can have, that God is ready and willing to receive them, that the blood is on the mercy seat. That's why it was in front of it seven times. A picture of that assurance that God would give to man, that he is satisfied with the work.
Of the cross of Christ.
The next verse tells us He shall bring the goat of the sin offering that is for the people.
And bring His blood within the veil and do with that blood as He did with the blood of the Bullock, sprinkle it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. Well, now we have to back up a little bit. Where did this goat come from? Well, there were two goats that were chosen earlier in the chapter. Verse six tells us of the Bullock that was offered. And then.
Verse seven tells us there were two goats.
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That were to be taken and presented before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots.
Upon the two goats, in some way, a choice would be made. That's what casting a lot was.
It's kind of like somebody rolls a dice, what's going to come up, you know? Or maybe they take a bunch of straws and they cut 1 short and they put them all in their hand where the tops are all even and pick one and depending on which one you pulled, a long one or the short 1A decision would be made and so a lot would be cast in some way. I don't know.
In something like that to pick which goat was the people's and which goat was.
The Lords one was the People's Law and one was Jehovah's law, the Lord's.
And so those two goats together made a sin offering, and that's what it says in.
Excuse me, Verse eight, you know, cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat, and Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for a sin offering.
That's where that goat came from, that he brought the blood within the veil. It was the goat that was chosen especially for the An offering.
For the Lord.
He does the same with that blood.
In these two goats we have pictured two sides of the work of the cross.
The first side and the side that has, you might say the preeminence and has to come first is what was for the Lord first, the Lord's law, the goat that was chosen for him. And that blood goes within the veil. It's sprinkled on the mercy seat for the eye of God.
There's an aspect, beautiful of the work of the cross.
Of Christ, what the Lord did on Calvary's cross, it says in Hebrews 9. By through the eternal Spirit He offered himself without spot to God.
The Lord Jesus yielded himself up. I want to just turn to Hebrews because some of the verses there in chapter 10 are very touch on our subject and they're very beautiful.
Hebrews 10.
We read or I quoted from Chapter 9. He offered himself through the eternal Spirit, without spot to God.
But then in chapter 10.
And verse 5.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not but a body. Hast thou prepared me, and burnt offerings, and sacrifices for sin. Thou has had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me to do thy will, O God.
And so.
When he came into this world, a body was prepared for him. He was became flesh and dwelt among us. He became a man so that he could lay down his life as a man at Calvary's cross, so that he could offer himself as a sacrifice to God.
For God's satisfaction.
And respect of the dark backdrop of man's sin in this world.
I wanted to try and explain it this way because this sometimes maybe is a hard or more difficult concept to get ahold of.
You know if someone has a home and they go away, lock it up and they come back and they open the door and go in and the house has been ransacked.
Someone has broken in. They've turned the place upside down, gone through all their personal belongings, stole things, wrecked the place, headed out.
That's quite a shock.
I've been told people have been through that, that even after everything's been put back to rights and maybe change the locks on the door and everything, next time they went on vacation and came back to their house and they went to put the key in the door.
There's a dread.
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What am I going to find?
What am I going to find?
Because of the outrage of what took place previously to them.
Let me put it in a different way. Let's say you're walking down the main dragon Brewer, and someone jumps out and assaults you, and they rob you and insult you. And a crowd gathers around and they watch and they laugh. And there's a policeman and he's not doing anything. And there you are in the sidewalk, knocked down, robbed, and this guy's getting away with it and everybody.
He's laughing and policeman's not doing a thing. How would you feel? Just outraged, Just humiliated.
Well, let's say they caught that man.
And he was brought before the judge.
And the right and just sentence of the law was carried out on that man.
Whatever it might be in prison.
And the policeman was dealt with too because of that, and justice was done.
Now next week when you walk down the main dragon Brewer.
What will you feel like?
There'll be this sense of indignity and injustice and humiliation that was done to your person. Yeah, but the guy was apprehended.
And all your stuff that was stolen was restored.
And, and, and, and he received the the due justice that was his.
Why don't you feel good about walking down the main dragon Brewer?
The remembrance, the sense of the insult and humiliation could never be taken away.
By the fact that the criminal was apprehended.
The sense of the wrongness of your house being broken into could never be taken away by everything just being put back to right.
Man's sin has risen up like the Tower of Babel, brick upon brick, higher and higher and higher in this world, to reach right into heaven if he could. And it's insult and defiance against God in all its filthiness, in all its awfulness. And if God took every Sinner in this world, including you and I, and consigned us to a lost eternity, which would be.
Or do and cleanse this world from everything that we have done in this world.
It would never take away the insult.
Of the injustice and the indignity.
That sinful man had done.
You know, you and I might walk down the street and Brewer after that was done to us and feel OK because we got old and our minds decayed and we forgot.
God can't forget. That's human weakness. He can never forget.
Never.
You and I might want to try and forget and we can.
Only God can choose not to forget.
The work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross that we call propitiation.
Was that he gave himself up whatever was required by God, whatever the cost, whatever the suffering, whatever it needed to take to render a satisfaction to God.
In respect of the injustice and insult.
Of sin against himself.
And he took it away.
He took it away.
In the work of the cross.
So Satisfied is gone with the work of his son.
That he says, I want you to come and find here with me full and free forgiveness of sin.
A work in which he has not only been satisfied, but a work in which he has been glorified.
And the Lord Jesus took that all away.
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For God's glory. It's the highest aspect of the work of the cross. It's that first goat, Jehovah's law, Jehovah's portion. Christ is God's portion in his sacrifice on that cross and our need as creatures for the forgiveness of sin, sins.
Can never precede the demands of the glory and the holiness and the righteousness of God.
That had to be satisfied first, and would we ever find any peace or rest in our portion?
If we did not know, God had his settled forever.
It's pictured beautifully when Elijah came to that with a woman and she had nothing but a little meal and a little oil and a vessel and Elijah said, make me there of a little cake first, little cake first. God's heart comes first. Then she found out the barrel of meal would never waste.
And the cruise of oil never fail till rain came on the earth. Then she found out about her portion.
Make me thereof a little cake. First God's part is first God has been propitiated. A satisfaction has been rendered to him. Now in the heathen world, they have gods, false gods that are angry, that are all kinds of things, and they need to propitiate those gods. They need to make those gods.
Favorable to them, and so they offer sacrifices.
To make their gods, as they think, favorable to them. Some of those sacrifices are so extreme they were even human sacrifices.
Is that what propitiation in the scripture means?
No, because John 316 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
The Lord Jesus was not a propitiation in order to make God favorable to you and I.
He already was. He already loved us.
But it was to clear out of the way that which stood as a barrier between His love and you and I, that He might be full and free in the expression of all that was in His heart and all that He is.
He took it away.
And so the gospel is preached on that wonderful foundation that God has been satisfied. It's like that wisdom crying out in in Proverbs 9, come, all things are ready. My fat links have been killed, my wine is mixed, everything's ready. Come. Or like Luke chapter 14 in that great supper, all things are ready. Come, The work is done on the cross.
Whosoever will may come.
The next thing that took place on the Day of Atonement.
In verse 16, as he shall make an atonement for the holy place.
And so we find as we go down through these verses.
To verse 19 that he makes an atonement for all the holy vessels.
The Tabernacle and so on. Everything is cleansed and reconciled to God, all these inanimate objects.
And so in Colossians in our chapter, we find that he is reconciled all things unto himself, things which are in heaven and things which are on earth. You know, in Philippians it tells us that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess the things in heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth, or infernal beings. Infernal beings are never reconciled.
To God.
But things in heaven and things in earth, everything that fell under Satan's power because of man's sin.
Is going to be reconciled back to God through the work of the cross. Part of the work of Calvary's cross is to set everything.
In perfect order and conformity to God and who He is, and as light and love, He's going to reconcile everything back into perfect accord with God and who He is in the entire universe. Everything.
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He bought everything. Remember that parable in Matthew 13 of the man who found the treasure hid in the field, and he says he went and bought the whole field.
To have that treasure, well, the treasure we know is the Saints. But he bought the whole field through the work of the cross. He's bought everything. Everything is his. Everything is his because he is creator of all.
Everything is his because he is the sun and heir of it all, and everything is his because he won it at Calvary's cross. And on that basis he's going to reconcile everything to God.
There's even going to be a new heavens and new earth.
In the coming day. You know what's beautiful about that? Today we look up in the stars and what do you see? Constellations. Anybody know some of those constellation names? You probably do. Where do they come from? They come from old Pagan gods. But you're not going to look up into new heavens and see any constellation named after some Pagan God. No, that's going to be gone forever.
The Lamb of God beareth away the sin of the world, and its ultimate end is in a new heaven.
And a new earth, everything is going to be reconciled to God. And so he makes an atonement for all of these different things. But then he comes to verse 20. And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place and the Tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. That's the second goat. That's the goat that was called the People's Law.
Jehovah's law, its blood is brought within the veil, but this one, that's the peoples, is still living. Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children, excuse me, of the children of Israel and all their transgressions.
And all their sins putting them on the head of the goat. And he shall send him away by the hand of a fit man.
Into the wilderness, and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and he shall let the goat go. The goat in the wilderness. This is a picture to us of the side of the cross that is manward towards you and I. And it's not so much that satisfaction rendered to God.
In the black backdrop of sin and man, sin.
But the individual bearing of sins. Just as Aaron laid his hands on that head of that goat, there was no laying hands on the head of the first goat. But this one he identifies with that goat the sins of the people, their iniquities, their transgressions, their sins.
And they're put on that goat in that way, they're symbolically transferred.
To that goat as he laid his hand upon him. Oh, they were not symbolically transferred to the Lord Jesus Christ in Calvary's cross.
Let's turn over.
To Hebrews again, Chapter 9.
Hebrews 9.
Middle of verse 26.
That little word. But now just a little hint. Paul uses that over and over again. Now means.
After the work of the Cross, but now once in the end of the world or the end of the age.
He hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. That's propitiation.
He's put it away from before the sight of God.
And it is appointed, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
They are the sins of many, that substitution.
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The Lord Jesus never bore the sins of every person.
That ever sinned in this world.
He put away sin.
He rendered a satisfaction to God in respect of sin, in which God is free to come out in His love and grace, but He did not bear every sin of every person in this world, and that's why it says to bear the sins of many but not all.
In the work of the cross of Christ, we call substitution is only for the believer, It's only for the elect of God.
That can say he bore my sins are going to turn over to that in first Peter. He bore our sins. Peter says first Peter and chapter 2.
Verse 24.
Who His own self bear our sins. The believer in his own body on the tree he bore our sins, the sins of many.
It is only the believer.
Look can look back to the cross and know that his individual sins were born were confessed just like Aaron confessed them on the head of that goat were born by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and those individual sins, those things that we did.
Were born and put away from the sight of God forever.
Forever He was our substitute on that cross. He suffered there the judgment of God for every one of my sins, and everyone of the sins of the elect.
Substitution is limited to the elect of God.
They alone are reconciled to God. All others who pass into lost eternity, those in that place, Scripture never speaks of reconciliation for them.
The work of propitiation Godward has laid the foundation where God is righteous to say whosoever will may come, and all may come.
But outside of the grace of God working in the heart and conscience, none would ever come.
But all those whose and whose hearts he will work, in whose hearts He will impart sovereignly new life, and they are born of God, will come, and it is those.
Whose sins he bore on Calvary's cross. Let me stop for a minute. If he had borne the sins of every single person in this world, who would ever be in a lost eternity in hell?
Could God righteously put anyone?
In Hell.
Who could say the Lord Jesus bore my sins in his own body on the tree?
God could not righteously put one in a lost eternity, but we know there will be those there.
Whose sins he did not bear.
He bore the mall at Calvary's Cross almost 2000 years ago. They were all passed.
When I was born, already born at that cross.
Already done.
Taken care of.
And so that's a side of the cross of Christ that is especially known.
To those who believe.
And when we preach the gospel, we preach on the basis of propitiation.
The throne of God has been satisfied. Come there is full and free forgiveness offered to everyone, and it's a genuine offer based on the work of propitiation.
But in, if we could say it, retrospect, when we believe, we look back and we find it's only the believer who sins he bore in his own body on that tree. And so back to our chapter in Colossians.
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Verse 21 and you.
And you?
The Believer.
That were sometimes alienated, and in your mind, and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death. There is the ground of reconciliation to present you wholly and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight.
His work He will reconcile all things to himself, every created thing in heaven and earth. But when it comes to persons.
It's the believer that's in view and you at the reconcile.
We were enemies in our minds. Why?
By Wicked Works.
You know.
That's how the mind of man works.
He sins.
And he knows God is not happy with that sin.
God is going to judge that sin.
And what does it make him? It makes him afraid of being in God's presence. And so in Adam and Eve's sin, they hid in the garden. And if you sinned, you'd probably hide too. In fact, if you do something bad at home and Dad comes home, you'd rather not be around when Dad's home.
We'd like to be somewhere else, and that's how man is with God.
He's an alien to God in his own mind because of what he's done.
It's made him think about God.
In a wrong way, he says. You know God. Who?
Wants to judge my sin. Well, you know, he's kind of a bad person anyway because he wants to do that.
You know man has a neighbor and you know he.
He does something wrong to his neighbor and he's got a bad conscience and he sees his neighbor out there and he says.
I got to go to work, but I'll wait till he pulls out and gone because I really don't want to see him because he's got a bad conscience about what he did to his neighbor. So his neighbor pulls out and he backs out of his driveway and he guns it a little and runs over his neighbor's garbage can and then takes off. Because you know what? That guy's pretty bad guy anyway, You know, that's how the mind works. We do something wrong to somebody.
And we don't want to be around them. And we say, I don't want to be around them because they're a bad person and they deserve what they got for me anyway. And that's how man is towards God. He becomes an alien in his mind and an enemy by wicked works, and he ends up saying God's a bad person.
He deserves what what he gets from me.
But you know, through the work of the cross.
Not only has the Lord Jesus Christ borne our sins in his own body.
There's been a work of God in your heart and mine.
To break us down.
To show us his love.
In giving his son.
And proving to us beyond any proof, other proof he could ever have given.
That he loves you and he loves me.
And he breaks us down, and he reconciles us to Himself, and he brings us in his sons to share that place in light with the Saints, the portion of the Saints in light, and the Kingdom of the Son of his love.
And his love reassures us and reassures us for all eternity.
That were his, He is ours, and we have been reconciled.
To him.
It's far more than what took place on the Day of Atonement. Atonement means a covering.
And that's as far as it could go in the Old Testament and had to be repeated every year.
But in the New Testament, through the work of the cross, there's much more than atonement, much more than a covering. There's a reconciliation to God.